London school shares how Reading Plus supports Ofsted and SATs
Georgia Neath, Year 6 Class Teacher and Reading Subject Lead at Carpenters Primary School, shares all the ways Reading Plus has improved reading in her school – including inspiring individual stories and meeting Ofsted’s expectations.
A reading programme that works
Reading Plus fits in with Ofsted’s focus on reading ages. The Lexiles Framework used by Reading Plus is a slightly more sophisticated way of analysing a child's reading level and gives us the closest thing we have to a reading age with raw data.
It also produces SAT-style questions and hits all the core reading skills, like inference, summarising, retrieval, vocabulary, etc.
We knew that some children would fly through the programme without a problem. I've got some greater depth pupils who are now at Level J (Year 11), which I'd never seen before.
The fact that Reading Plus matches their age and ability has also really helped our lower-ability readers. The autonomy to choose what they want to read that day also helps to give children control over their own learning.
ZamZam’s story
Year 6 pupil ZamZam Raoufi was named as a finalist in the Reading Plus Awards for ‘Most Effort on Reading Plus’ for her hard work, strength and dedication towards developing her reading.
During Year 5, ZamZam didn't access the programme very regularly and wasn't a big homework doer. We prioritise homework in Year 6, so we had to get her ready for her next year.
I can't stress how far she has come.
She's been in the country only 18 months with trauma and no English. ZamZam was new to the country from Afghanistan in Year 5. She arrived as a refugee, having only had one year of schooling before girls were banned. She has worked so hard to learn English and is diligently doing her Reading Plus at home to progress further. She receives many certificates from us, and has been nationally recognised in the Reading Plus Awards.
For children like ZamZam, this progress has been really lovely.
Teacher enjoyment
I like the time it saves me as a full-time class teacher and also my colleagues - we no longer have to set and mark reading homework. We were then able to scrap reading diaries in Key Stage 2, which also saved us money.
I like that the data is there and detailed.
I like that it's an easy-to-use system.
I like the certificates that we can print off. We really shout and celebrate their certificates, which they love. Anything we can do to highlight it and celebrate reading.
I like that, as the admin, I can oversee all of my Key Stage 2 classes, which enables me to have conversations with teachers about their classes.
I like that pupils get placed on Hold when they're clicking too fast and not properly answering the questions. It forces children to slow down and think about what they're reading. That's been really helpful.
And I like that the kids can choose their text as well - it's been nice to give the children ownership over what they read.
Matthew’s story
We had a little boy last year, Matthew - a really reluctant reader. He was a looked-after child with a very traumatic start in life. I've known him for two years and he's always hated reading, but loved computing.
Reading Plus just suddenly spurred him on because it was almost gamified for him as he could see his Combos and his lessons adding up.
Matthew also often chooses to read science fiction or non-fiction texts that he prefers.
For him and children like him, it's been a real joy.
Valuable reading data
That differs depending on how the class teacher uses it. It was very helpful for me. I used it to identify children for our volunteer partner organisation who come in to read one-on-one with children.
The Screening Report very easily gives an overview. For example, I know which children I need to focus on in my class core reading lessons. That was helpful, especially when you get a new class and don't know them yet.
Then from that, you can track their progress.
Effective customer support
Our Reading Development Consultant was great at the beginning of the process. We had our free pilot with him and the progress data was good.
The ongoing support has been really excellent. Our Customer Support Advisor always responds to emails.
Reading Plus improving the wider curriculum
I've definitely had a couple of children answer a question in science or history or another non-core subject, and when you ask, “How do you know that?” they say, “It was one of my Reading Plus texts.” That's been really nice.
About Carpenters School
The school wanted a programme that would:
- Motivate children who are reluctant readers.
- Support Ofsted’s focus on reading age.
- Encourage reading at home.
- Gain a clear understanding of the reading levels in Key Stage 2.
Before Reading Plus…
“Reading at home had always been a struggle - marking reading diaries, getting kids to write a decent comment, checking whether they've read was always quite tricky.
Also, I don't think we had a very clear understanding of the reading levels in Key Stage 2. In Key Stage 1, they're very clear - with the phonics screening check, you’ve got that data. But, in KS2, all you have are termly tests and, obviously, for Year 6, that looks like SATs.
That's been one of the benefits of Reading Plus - we can see that raw data for the children who engage.”
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